Welcome Back Sushi + Valentine’s Day Weekend

Happy Monday morning! I hope that you all enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day whether you spent it celebrating self-love, puppy love, family love or romantic love. I went for a little of all four! 🙂

A few Valentine’s weekend pics to share to kick off the week.

Look what I welcomed back into my life on Friday night, sushi! It was pretty magical. We grabbed dinner at Namastay Kitchen at Y2 (we just rebranded restaurant!) and I decided to test sushi. It was my first post-Whole30 rice. I had our sushi chef keep everything gluten-free but happy to report that the rice test went well! (Better than beans/legumes, I’d have to say.) I had a rainbow roll and our amazing tuna avocado salad.

I was up early on Saturday morning and ended up doing a cleaning extravaganza on the house. Two busy adults + three pups makes it a challenge to keep the house clean. One of us vacuums daily and I feel like we’re constantly straightening and trying to stay on top of laundry. (We probably both go through 2-3 changes of clothes a day with how much we teach and sweat.)

When I finally got dressed and ready to head to the studio I got to wear a new outfit from The Track & Field Store here in Charlotte. I loved the leggings they picked out for me and thought they were perfect for Valentine’s Day weekend!

I taught my Saturday 11:15 a.m. hot class and then grabbed lunch in the restaurant with my fiance while we went over last minute planning for our Couples Thai Yoga Massage Workshop. I had the harvest salad with arugula, dried cranberries, apples, candied pecans, beets, avocado and house roasted turkey breast.

The workshop was so much fun! We had 26 couples and they LOVED it! I think everyone was a little surprised by the amount of “hurts so good” that’s involved in Thai Yoga Massage. Definitely not for the faint of heart. It was fun to see the couples interacting, smiling and sharing a new experience together. The hand holding savasana at the end was the cherry on top.

After the workshop I took myself to the gym to get my workout done. I did four miles of treadmill intervals and upper body. After the gym I ran Valentine’s Day errands and picked up some small gifts and cards.

We talked about going out but after a busy afternoon, all I wanted to do was cozy up at home. I made grass-fed beef burgers with caramelized onions and mushrooms along with roasted brussels and butternut squash. We ate this and got caught up on Scandal. So glad it’s back on!

We enjoyed a super lazy Valentine’s morning. Slept until about 9 and then lounged around the house with the pups until we had to head to the studio at 2 p.m. I took class and then taught class.

Valentine’s dinner was a bit of a disaster. I planned on serving those Alaskan King Crab Legs that I bought at Costco last weekend but when I went to read about how to prepare them, I noticed that every single recipe said to defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before cooking…and mine were still in the freezer. Oops.

Blue Apron to the rescue! I was lucky that we had just received a Blue Apron shipment so I made an awesome Mexican-inspired salmon dish over a black rice salad with avocado, pepitas, oranges, cilantro and all sorts of good stuff. Zoey supervised, as she always does. She’s a great little sous chef.

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Love those leggings! I have similar ones from Calia by Carrie Underwood and they are comfy and cute (perfect combo). I still haven’t had sushi post Whole30! I’ve had sashimi but now I want some rolls…yum!

Hi! I’m a new fan from Ashburn! Your posts are such fun! Enjoying as I sip my whole 30 coconut milk coffee and recover from yesterday’s hot flow class! DId the Whole 30 in January w/my hubs & no plans to stop! LOVE your doggie pics..I will soon have 2 goldens–newest comes home Saturday 2/20…Griffin, a puppy!!!

Jen – Elyse and I loved the thai workshop Saturday, and the yummy wine/snacks afterwards. We were trying to remember all of the postures/techniques we covered, but had a hard time trying to write all of them down a few hours after. Would you and Tanner be open to sending those out? I’m loving following your blog now, I’m totally inspired to get wedding ready. I think I am going to go the paleo route instead of whole 30, it just makes more sense for my lifestyle! Hope to see you around the studio soon!

I really want to like wild caught salmon but just prefer farm raised…my piece was super fishy. I liked the texture of the black rice but didn’t think the oranges were a good touch. In general I have had great luck with BA meals, this one just wasn’t my fave!

I just used a pound of grass-fed beef and mixed in some salt, pepper and a little bit of a steak/burger seasoning rub and cooked in a cast iron skillet until it was medium rare, about 140 degrees. I don’t really add anything to my burgers other than some seasoning!

I have that Blue Apron meal in my refrigerator! Unfortunately I already ate the orange for a snack… I celebrated Valentine’s day with a friend (I am single) and today I stocked up on chocolates marked 50% off!

That seems to always happen to me – I have quite a few frozen crockpot meals, to “dump and go”, but then I forget to thaw them. Doh! Love your pups. They are so cute. I could totally just lounge around with them all day.

I'm Jen and I'm a personal trainer, yoga teacher and the author of Ultimate Plank Fitness and The Complete Guide to Yoga Inversions. I live in Charlotte, NC and share daily updates about food, fitness, yoga and life with two golden retrievers! You can reach me at jen@peanutbutterrunner.com.